Apr 5, 2012

On 5 April 2012 Reuters reported that global food prices had risen in March 2012 for a third straight month. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more prices increases are expected in the future. Food prices reached a record peak in February 2011 then fell. Today, they are below the peak but still higher than during the global food price crisis of 2007-08.

The food crisis of 2007-08 created violent outbreaks around the world, especially in the Middle East. According to Larbi Sadiki, an expert in North African politics at Britain's Exeter University, ""Higher food prices mean higher import bills for the poorest countries, which do not produce enough food domestically. In north Africa, food subsidies are a red line, especially in Tunisia and Egypt ... Citizens can be expected to take to the streets to demand social justice."

"The food price index has an extremely high correlation to oil prices and with oil prices up it's going to be difficult for food prices not to follow suit," said Nick Higgins, commodity analyst at Rabobank International.
Energy prices affect the production of fertilizers as well as food distribution and farm machinery usage costs."

"'We will be 7.2 billion people on earth in 2015, and more than one million have died from starvation in 2011. The situation will not improve, and in fact the contrary will happen," Pierre Reuland, Interpol's special representative to the European Union, told a meeting of European security officials in January."